Farm Actuvity Update 28-Jul-2016

There is no activity in the farm for the past few weeks.  There is intense heat and no rain till now. Though there is rich monsoon clouds all over India and there is flood as well, in our farm it is a drought. This is not unusual. We get rains only in November.

Therefore no water. Windpump is barely able to meet the needs.  According to Subbu,  last year was a drought without water and wind. This year we are getting wind at-least. Last year were were purchasing water at this time. This year however we are just managing.

The pond has dried out.  Fishes have been shared among workers. Subbu told the pond is dry. They should have saved at-least few fishes in the smaller tank, which they did not.

Meanwhile electricity officials have come and gone twice. Citing capacity inadequacy in nearby transformer, they seems to have identified another source.  I have lost hope and told Subbu not to pursue further. But Subbu is full of hope. Since we have paid for the meter, they must come back sir. I am not chasing them least they will ask for bribe. Let it come on its own

But that may be a long wait.  Not keeping quite, I asked Subbu if we can rent an oil pumpset. I guess it will be costly. The other alternative is to use our baby kerosene pump set and give a try. Subbu is very reluctant. He underestimates that equipment.  I insisted. Finally they are now trying the pump without success.  Initially the engine itself did not start due to long gap. It was serviced in Moolakaraipatti, a nearby hamlet.

As per Subbu, with a hose of 50 feet connected to the pump it is unable to draw water. But the machine is rotating and air is coming. I guess there may be air leak which doesnot allow the vaccum to be created.  Pump rotating is a good sign.  It is third or fourth day they are trying out all combinations.

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Spread Like the birds dropping......

So called weed shown by Kandan. Actually,
 this seed is something I brought from Pune

I just wanted to give the title "Resourceful intervention on bio-diversity" for this short note. But later simplified into "Birds Dropping" or even better "Birds Poo". Both mean the same.  Birds fly across the landscape, eat fruits and drop the seeds all over the place helping spread bio-diversity.

On my visit to farm last month, during the walk around, Kandan pointed out to some new "weeds" growing around Banana trees.  They were in abundance. Near the windpump they were getting plenty of water and hence was healthy.  I would have taken it lightly except for the message Subbu told. He said, "this kind of plant is not a native to this place sir".

That scared me..  I must be the culprit.  I had inadvertently brought some species from my workplace some 1400 Kms away which happens to be a weed.  So thinking I started asking my agriculture friends. To my surprise they all said this is a common green in some farms and is native only. Used sparingly it will enhance milk secretion for women after child birth. Taken more, it may cause loose motion.  I am relieved.  Subbu must be ignorant.

Phew ! That was only a luck. What if I had introduced without knowledge an invasive weed in my enthusiasm?  I must be careful in my selection.

In another place on the farm they shows another plant which did not belong to native. And another wine. and so on.  I remember these are plants that I collected from the outscrits of Maharashtra - wild plants and not necessarily exotic.  I generally like herbs which are strange looking, self reliant and host to wildlife.

Looks like my point forest is succesful.  Earlier I had invented a concept called "point forest" (Click here). That was last year when I downloaded all the collected seeds and asked Subbu to make a small circle and confine it... After lot of follow up (because he was sceptical and thought it is waste of time) and pressure from me  he finally arranged bricks in small sqare pit.   Just like a "Homa Gunda" of Hindu ritual.  He put all seeds into it. Did not water it properly.  Over a period of time when the pond was expanded JCB destroyed it without a trace.

All my hard work of collecting the seeds went down the drain, I thought.  Seems No.  Not at all.  I guess those seeds are now washed off to far away place in the farm and are growing in favorable conditions.  Some where here and there I can spot those plants that I wanted to grow.  I guess with few more rains and seasons, we can find more of the species here and there.

Hope and Hard work does pay..

Windpump got angry !

You may wonder if I say the Wind Pump is angry with us.  You may even suspect my sanity.  But what more can I say except report what happened !.  It is upto you.

The Angry pump

The day when we were boring a 2nd well for water, the wind pump went silent. There were these two giant drilling machines standing at a distance overlooking the wind pump.  The wind pump which was working smoothly non-stop for the past 8 months or so suddenly stopped working.  This happened on the same day.

The windpump base in active

Technically the pump had got "chocked" apparently due to a piece of PVC pipe that went down the shaft. This piece was from a pipe overhead that got eroded by up and down motion of center rod.

Imagine the situation at the farm (Last month first week) when it was peak summer,  New boring is done but inactive,  Windpump stopped and there was no water till repair is done. We almost had to purchase water in-spite of having two holes.

Subbu and team had to remove entire assembly and remove the debry.  Since then till date one or the other problem is coming to the windpump every week.

Perhaps it is angry that we have dug another borewell. Perhaps it knows that she will loose her importance because we will  put an electric pump there.

I told Subbu, come what may we need to keep running windpump.

Just few days back Subbu was atop the windpump trying to control the rotation when I called on him. He wanted to stop the blades and go for some alignment fixing.

People had to pull the tower and tilt a bit for Paramu to fix something which they said if left alone will erode a rod.  I can't visualise.

As of now everything is fixed. As a value addition, Subbu had fixed a 2 inch 10 feet pipe overhead in the place of erstwhile pvc pipe. This will guide the central rod from the top itself without allowing it to oscillate.

Still Subbu is not sure if the pump will work without issue. The concern is the foot valve is suddenly getting "tight" and gets "Chocked".  If this happens, the windpump bends the rod and turns it loose.

I guess this happens due to salt deposit in the inner piston of the rod.  Let me see. If this prolongs, we have to do sand paper or bring the pump to a lathe and drill very slightly (thinner than hair) to make the cylinder smooth.

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